1See: Bassnett, S. "The Translation Turn in Cultural
Studies" in Bassnett and Lefevere (1998b), in which Susan Bassnett
indicates the areas where it would be fruitful to have a greater
co-operation between practitioners of Translation Studies and
Cultural Studies. The list includes teaching: "there needs to be a
pooling of resources to extend research into intercultural
training and the implication of such training in today's world"
(p. 138).

2'Free' and 'literal' (Catford: 1965).

3The history of the term 'equivalence' to define
translation is illustrated in Broeck, R. Van, "The Concept of
Equivalence", in Hermans, Th. (1985b).

4For reason of limited space we do not look at the
reception of the play in England and America.

5The origins of the Music Hall are difficult to trace
since the genre has been in existence since the 16th century. In
the 19th century, however, large designated rooms were created for
Music Hall, thus replacing those farms or eating-houses where it
had hitherto been taking place. By the 1970s, social clubs (see
following notes) had replaced most of the Music Halls. See:
Davison, P. (1986), Drama and the Popular Tradition in England,
London, MacMillan. In particular the chapter: 'The Music Hall
Tradition'.

6Or 'social club'. These clubs were often very large,
with a bar and a social room where people met to play bingo. On
Saturday nights, there were entertainment events featuring
comedians and, sometimes, television stars. See also Griffiths, T.
(1986), 'Narrare, Descrivere, Criticare' in: Teatro dell'Elfo
(1986), Comedians/Comici: Trevor Griffiths e il teatro inglese
contemporaneo. Adattamenti e riscritture, Milano, Clued). It
includes a series of the lectures held at the 'Elfo' theatre in
Milan (1986), by theatre practitioners, university professors and
other people involved in the production of the staged version of
Comedians. The lectures were attended by Trevor
Griffiths.

7For both the English and the 'face to face'
translation we will refer to this edition.

8
(Challenor):
"Don't cry to be deep. Keep it simple. I'm not looking for
philosophers, I'm looking for comics. I'm looking for someone who
sees what people want and knows how to give it them" (ibid.,
82).

9In England, during the mid Seventies, the Labour
Party was shaken by an identity crisis: the changes that had been
predicted didn't occur. The leadership of the Labour Party failed
to keep the working class united, to lead the Party to an election
victory and, later, to prevent the Conservatives from retaining
power. See: Bassnett, S. (1987: 13-55).

10See Ettore Capriolo , "In altri termini" in: Teatro
dell'Elfo (1986), Comedians/Comici, cit., 49-53. Here Capriolo
defines Comedians as virtually 'untranslatable'. Despite that he
recognised the necessity, felt by the theatre company, of
rewriting the play completely and of recontextualizing some
situations so as to give them an Italian background, he seems
bound to the idea of the original work's unique integrity, viewed
as an aesthetic artefact whose meaning is fixed by the intention
of the author.

11The Italian 'cabaret' was seen (by the theatre
company) as the Italian counterpart for that type of comedy
presented in Comedians: the place is usually a small club. The
jokes and gags performed by comedians of cabaret are often based
on improvisations, recent events (taken from the press, TV etc),
in other words, events that might be close to the life of their
mixed audience.

12See Teatro dell'Elfo (1986). In particular the
chapter 'Gli interpreti sui personaggi' (pp.77-109) in which the
actors/playing Comedians talk about their characters and how they
"discover their characters inside themselves".

13
There
are 38 footnotes added to the translation.

14I am here applying Freud's interpretation of jokes,
as developed in: Freud, S. (1905), Jokes and Their Relation to the
Unconscious, London, Hogarth Press. See also: Wright, E. (1989),
Psychoanalytic Criticism. Theory in Practice, London and New York,
Routledge, pp. 137-38, in which the Freudian interpretation of
jokes is applied to literary criticism.

15See the interview with the Italian actor playing
Sammy/McBrain in the Italian production, as included in: Teatro
dell'Elfo (1986), p. 87. Here the actor talks about his personal
experience as an immigrant from the South of Italy who moved to
Milan, and how he explored this situation to create his
'fictional' character.

16See the interview with the Italian actor playing
Sammy/McBrain in the Italian production, as included in: Teatro
dell'Elfo (1986), p. 87. Here the actor talks about his personal
experience as an immigrant from the South of Italy who moved to
Milan, and how he explored this situation to create his
'fictional' character.

17According to the MAPS of Holmes, here we can say
that some of the ST's textual features (e.g. phonetics) occupy a
low position within the hierarchical order of priorities
established by the translator in the TT.

FREUD, S. (1905), Jokes and their
Relation to the Unconscious, London, Hogarth Press.

GRIFFITHS, T. (1976), Comedians, London,
Faber and Faber.

GRIFFITHS, T. (1988), Trevor Griffiths.
Comedians. Testo inglese a fronte, Milano, Angelo Guerini e
Associati. It includes the original play by Trevor Griffiths and
the Italian 'face to face' translation to which we are referring
in the Analysis.

TEATRO DELL'ELFO, (1986),
Comedians/Comici, Milano, Clued. It includes the staged version of
Comedians, interviews with the actors, discussions on the staging
and production, and a series of essays listed in this
bibliography.